Army Times Headline-"Troops Begin Combat Operations in New Orleans"

[buzzsaw_23]

Not Rescue-Not Humanitarian-COMBAT: That's the Headline, That's the Mentality, That's the Policy, That's the Reality.

Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer

NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”

Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php

And while you are considering this consider this, posted in LBN by Bravo 411:

Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans
By Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo
t r u t h o u t | Report

Saturday 10 September 2005

New Orleans - Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.
Click here for full article.

Posted by bravo411
http://bravo411.blogspot.com


And read this article about redesigning the US Military and how they are changing their role and practice in the world. Everything is a military operation now.
The irony in the term "Global South" as relates to the military action in New Orleans is left to the reader to reflect on. Everywhere there is poverty and/or valuable resources is the "Global South":

US Military vs. Global South Cities

by Stephen Graham

July 20, 2005
 
Western military theorists and researchers are increasingly preoccupied with how  the rapid growth of cities in the global south undermine their technological advantages over non-state insurgents. In particular, a concerted effort is being made to redesign and reequip the United State military so that its raison d’ êtré becomes the violent take over and control of the mega cities of the global south. After three decades when the US military concentrated on global surveillance, power projection, and the avoidance of ground fighting in urban environments,  US high-tech surveillance and targeting power is now being redesigned to actually target and control the very micro geographies of global south cities.

With the bloody results of the urban insurgency in Iraq adding evidence to support their views every day, many leading military theorists in the US now argue that the urban terrain in poor, global south countries is a great leveller between high-tech US forces and their low-tech and usually informally organised and poorly equipped adversaries. The complex and congested terrain below, within, and above cities are thus widely viewed by US military commanders and theorists as a set of spaces which limit the effectiveness of the high-tech space-targeted bombs, surveillance systems, and automated, ‘network-centric’ and ‘precision’ weapons developed during the Cold War. A US Defense Intelligence Reference Document for example, argues  that “the urban environment negates the abilities of present US military communications equipment.”  This results in dead spots which severely undermine the principles and technologies of ‘network-centric warfare’” – the style of high-tech targeting  and killing that is the preferred mode of operation amongst the US military these days.  Global south cities are thus seen to be refuges which shelter insurgent groups from the overwhelming technological superiority of US forces. The major military think tank RAND report ed recently that this is leading to what they call the ‘urbanization of insurgency’.”

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=8346

[Zenlitened]

1. Make it look like a "little Somalia"? Here's a photo from Somalia:

I question Brig. Gen. Gary Jones' temperament for command.

:grr:

[buzzsaw_23]

2. Came across these

New Orleans


Falluja/New Orleans

We've seen many other images from New Orleans that we think only happen "Over There".

[autorank]

3. Doesn't anyone get fired for this shit anymore?

This is so offensive it's unbelievable. The Army will fight the citizens, headline, and it's just left to stand. I'f fire whoever did this so quickly, the paper and the General, it would make their heads spin. This is a disgrace.

[buzzsaw_23]

4. And that headline

reflects the mentality of how this "operation" will be and is being handled. I think it also reflects a deeper current of a thoroughly militarized culture that responds with harsh "security" measures for any crisis. Like a punitive father.

[Nabia2004]

5. Is this what our future holds?

Headlines such as "Troops Begin Combat Operations in Portland or _______"

I fear we are living a never ending nightmare.

[bluedawg12]

6. Mouth piece for dod and rumpshead blames civilians

check out Military City and their article about the superdome being trashed- making the civilians out to be animals.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077862.php

Evacuation complete, Superdome lies in squalor

"Inside, the once state-of-the-art home of the National Football League’s New Orleans Saints is absolute squalor. Nearly every inch of the 70,000-plus-seat arena is covered in trash, human waste or floodwater. A stench of ammonia blasts the senses. Few people are visible in the daytime, but soldiers say that civilians have reported that gangs among the people waiting for the buses forced several people inside Thursday night and raped them. Numerous reports by civilians that there are dead bodies inside could not be confirmed or denied by the Guard, said spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Sanchez.

Outside, thousands of civilians were mobbing a walkway leading into a mall that the military is using to process people getting onto the Houston-bound buses. Many civilians have been in the stuck waiting for more than 24 hours.

>>**People afraid of losing their places in line have defecated where they stand. <<

People in the front of the **mob have been injured from being crushed against steel barricades that separates the civilians from the military men and women trying to conduct the evacuation."

The survivors were a mob?
They defecated on themselves???

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Army Times staff writer out did himself in being bigoted, and Un American by describing U.S. citizen survivors of a Cat 4 hurricane, a major flood and four days with out food and water in such a manner.

IMHO his piece was shameful and calloused. Would he have described his own grandmother or toddler as defecating all over themselves?
Perhaps he would.

[buzzsaw_23]

7. Sure Looks That Way